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Just another day in paradise

We had a great day at sea today in the Chesapeake. Much of the credit goes to Micke Batza and his family for making the transition onto M/V Seaweed so easy alongside his farm on the Wye River. Mike, we can’t thank you enough for the generous hospitality.

We actually began the trip Saturday October 6 when Jack and I arrived via Enterprise rental car from Florida. We spent most of Saturday afternoon settling into the boat and getting ready for our 30 day+/- adventure back to Florida. Saturday and Sunday we were able to resupply M/V Seaweed and catch some of the sporting events at local sports bars. Sunday’s weather wasn’t all that great and as it turned out we had forgotten a few items off the grocery list and we had plenty of time to change the oil and do a few other maintenance items before departure.

Now for a few boring boating items: Our port fuel tank had 15 inches, our starboard fuel tank had 18.5 inches. Both water tanks filled to the top. The navigation system, GPS at bridge and pilot house we’re confirmed working and okay. Battery voltages and radios checked. And all critical thru-hull valves were located . We also did a lot of housekeeping basics where we found all the necessities of life thanks to several calls to Bo and Don.

So Monday morning 730 a.m. we departed from Stagwell Farms dock on the Wye river. Our route took us roughly down the river to East Bay and westward across to the Chesapeake. Next we crossef the main ship channel to the western bank of the Chesapeake and south to Smith Point and then directly or should I say around and through the fish traps to the channel at Reedville. Here are some photos along the way:

Point No Point

A Blurry view of Smith Point light just south of the P0tomic River.

Fish traps just north of Wicomoco Light. (zoom to see them)

Our anchorage tonight (large scale, we’re the red triangle)

A more detailed view of tonight’s anchorage (we’re the red triangle).

We had overcast skies and rain for the last half of the day. We were hoping to beat a nasty line of showers to our anchorage and we did. Just a few miles east you can see what passed. We’re the blue dot with the white circle around it. We didn’t even get any drizzle!

We rounded the final green marker before our anchor stop of sandy point at 6 o’clock p m. We have the hook down and set and declared good by 617 p.m. A few minutes after that we realized a strategic error has been made because we had no ice. Luckily it only took 7 minutes to make the first tray. So shortly after captain Jack and captain Chris working graduating each other on a fine day. More details to follow in the next post after dinner.

All is going well albeit a little on the cold side. Or more like freezing assed cold! But that is on the outside; inside the pilot house we are quite comfortable. Outside conditions are wind speed less than 10 kts @40 degrees temperature is 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Jack just took the helm again for his watch. Seaweed continues to perform very well. At last estimate we will be off Smith point by 5 p.m. today. So we should have no problem making Reedville for Anchorage tonight.

We departed this morning at 730 a.m. and have been under way a little over 2 hours. 15 minutes ago captain Buckley took over the helm . We’re doing two hour watches . As you can see from the snapshot of the chart we are approaching the ship channel and will be crossing to the Westside of Chesapeake Bay over the next hour or so. Weather has been brisk to say the least. Wind was gusting 10 to 12 out of the north northeast but since we’ve found our way down the Wye River and across East Bay it seems to be calming down quite a bit. Or it could be captain Buckley is 1 of those people that brings good weather luck? Either way we’re both happier down in the pilot house.

We got to the boat just before a rain shower and hurriedly loaded everything in the boat. So now were defrosting the refrigerator and in fact we’ve finished defrosting the refrigerator and heading to town. When we come back we’ll put the rest of the way of stuff away and start on the other boat maintenance. If we can get out of here by 10 a.m. tomorrow we will depart tomorrow if not we will wait for Monday morning.

And all we can say is Mike has gone way out of his way to make this a real easy trip.

So far everything is going great. We talked to Mike earlier today and he is a really great guy. Looks like he has logistics all set up for us so we can leave tomorrow weather permitting. Here’s a photo of Jack. So far the drive in has been a piece of cake and you can tell because he’s smiling and driving at the same time

Bill and Charlene are back in town so we went out to celebrate with them. Here’s a head shot of Bill while I was driving. Pretty cool huh? I sent this directly from my phone to the Blog! On top of that I didn’t lose control of the car… it was pretty dumb to even try this. Distracted driving at its worst!